The clock is ticking for Warda Boujemaa. In the Spanish-controlled city of Ceuta, this mother of a nine-person household has until October 14 before a court-ordered eviction takes effect, and with no alternative housing in sight, she and her family could soon find themselves without a roof over their heads.
Her household includes five minor children, one of whom lives with autism, along with her own mother and two siblings. Back in June, a court granted her a three-month reprieve, time she hoped would be enough to secure a new home. Four months on, that search has gone nowhere: landlords are wary of housing such a large family, and several have backed away once they learned of her daughter’s condition.
« I’m not asking anyone to cover my rent, I already receive social assistance for that, » Boujemaa says, framing the issue not as one of affordability but of sheer availability. Rental units matching her family’s needs, she insists, have simply disappeared from the market. What she is asking for now is a home she can pay for herself, with social services backing the arrangement, yet that option continues to elude her.
Her account carries a pointed comparison that has struck a nerve locally: tents and beds have been set up for migrants arriving in Ceuta, she notes, while her own family, long-settled residents, are left to fend for themselves. Other households in the enclave, she says, are quietly living through the same housing squeeze.
With the eviction date just days away, local authorities have yet to announce any concrete fix. The case has become one more flashpoint in Ceuta’s broader housing crisis, a reminder of how acutely a shortage of affordable rentals is being felt by the city’s most vulnerable families.
